


with shortness of breath, you explained the infinite.

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Beaches, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), Shiro is mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 21:23:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15542442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Two boys meet one summer night on an empty beach, and have a conversation about infinite universes.“If you could change anything what would you change?” Lance asked sounding serious, “like if you could live in an alternate universe where one thing was different what would it be?”Keith already knew his answer.





	with shortness of breath, you explained the infinite.

When Keith arrived at the beach, it was nearly one- thirty in the morning and the place was near- deserted. There only seemed to be one other person there, a guy who looked to be Keith's age but Keith couldn't really tell for sure from where he was parked. He quickly took the keys out of his motorbike, shoved them in his pocket, and quickly hopped the fence, that had a bright yellow no trespassing sign on it. When he landed on the other side, he whipped off his sandals and gently wiggled his toes in the sand.  He began walking over to his usual spot, a small little rook between two big rocks in the back of the beach and sat down. Keith had come here to think. This beach was his haven, a place that hardly anyone knew of, one he had stumbled upon by chance on one of his last night rides. He often came here on days when he was stressed, or overthinking, or sad. The sea air cleared his head, the push and pull of the waves grounded him and helped him focus and the moon made him feel less alone.

Keith glanced at the one other person on the beach. He had a better view of him now. The guy was tall, maybe a few inches taller than Keith was and seemed quite lanky. He had tan skin and curly brown hair. He was wearing shorts and an oversized blue hoodie that appeared to swallow him and was standing ankle deep in the water staring out onto the sea. Keith mentally willed him to leave, as one of the main reasons Keith liked to come here was that he could look up at the moon, at the stars and feel like he was the only person in the world at that moment in time. It gave him some peace and that was something he really needed right now. But the guy wasn't causing him any harm and Keith obviously couldn't ask him to leave so he told himself to put up with it.

Keith was pulled from his thoughts by a loud yell coming from the water and his head shot up. The guy was on his knees in the shallow water and was soaking wet. A wave must have crashed onto him, or maybe he tripped? Keith jumped to his feet and sprinted over to the guy and held out his hand.

"Hey man, you ok?" he asked, as the stranger reached up, grabbed his hand and pulled himself to his feet.

" Yeah I'm good", the guy said as he reached down and began to squeeze the water out of his wet shorts. "God, that was embarrassing, can you believe a wave knocked me over?". The guy let out an awkward chuckle before continuing, "Thanks for helping by the way " And with that he looked up and caught Keith's eye before smiling.

_Oceans._

The boy with the bluest eyes Keith had ever seen then proceeded to introduce himself.

"The names Lance" he said with a smirk, "and you are?"

"Keith" Keith said softly, still mesmerised by the guy- Lance's- eyes, "Keith Kogane."

"Well Keith" Lance said, " As you so graciously saved my life, I invite you to sit with me, I mean I kinda owe it to you". He began walking back to the sand, "come on,follow me".

Keith felt his face redden and mumbled an okay before trailing after him. Lance turned back around, presumably to check if Keith wasn't too far behind and gave him the brightest smile Keith had ever witnessed in his entire twenty years of living.

_Suns._

Soon enough they reached the drier sand and plonked themselves down, facing the ocean. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, both observing the stars in the sky. Lance was the first one to break the silence between them.

"The stars are incredible" he said in awe, " no matter how many times I come out here and look at them I'm still amazed by them."

Keith sighed, " I couldn't agree more." He turned to look at Lance, who was staring up at the sky starstruck. "How did you find this place? I come here all the time and I've never seen anybody else here."

"A friend showed me this place, he and his family live nearby and ever since he brought me here I've been in love with it ". Lance cocked his head towards Keith, " and you?"

Keith shrugged. " I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

Lance smiled gently and turned back to face the sky. " You ever think of infinite universes?"

That was random, Keith thought, but at the same time so was this whole night. He glanced at Lance, " Umm, what?"

"Come on dude! Alternate universes, infinite realities, all that jazz. Like in Rick and Morty!"

"Rick and Morty?"

"Keith, my man, my dude, my pal, are you telling me you've never heard of Rick and Morty?"

Keith shook his head while Lance started giggling at him. Infinite universes. Keith wasn't going to lie that it was something he had given a lot of thought to. The fact that there could be hundreds, thousands, millions, an infinite amount of universes where everything could be completely different- gave him comfort in a weird way. That maybe in another life, his father would still be here. His mother wouldn't have left. He would have the old Shiro again.

"Uhh, Keith, you ok? You kinda zoned out on me there."

Keith snapped back to reality before nodding quickly.

"I'm fine just thinking. And to answer your question, yes, I've thought of alternate realities, and infinite universes. I mean who hasn't?"

Lance hummed, " It's crazy to think in another world we could be completely different. Hell, maybe I'm a pilot of a giant robotic lion in space or something in a different universe."

Keith burst out laughing at that and Lance quickly joined in. As their laughter died down, Keith snuck a look at Lance and noticed the faint freckles splashed across his cheeks.

_Stars_

“If you could change anything what would you change?” Lance asked sounding serious, “like if you could live in an alternate universe where one thing was different what would it be?”

Keith already knew his answer.

“A universe where I wasn’t in the accident with Shiro.” he stated. Lance motioned his hand as if to say go on. “When I was nineteen, I was in a car crash with Shiro, my brother- well adoptive brother but that doesn’t really matter,” He took a deep breath before continuing, “I was okay, but Shiro nearly died ‘cos he was behind the wheel. He lost his arm, and now gets nightmares and panic attacks. If I could I would erase that day, so it would never happen.”

Keith stops there but knows he could go on. He could say how Shiro was the one good thing in his life, after a life filled with one bad thing after the other. How Shiro was his only family, as his dad was dead and his mom was god knows where. He could talk about him dropping out of college to help support Shiro or how they struggled paying the bills every month. He could admit that it killed him Shiro was in so much pain and that he walked away from the crash unscathed. He could mention the guilt that tore him up inside every time Shiro got a nightmare or when his prosthetic acted up. But Keith had already told his stranger enough, which was odd, as it usually took him a long time to open up to someone.

“Keith” Lance said breathlessly, “I’m so so sorry.” He leaned over and engulfed Keith in a hug, wrapping his arms around his waist, as if he were protecting him. Keith buried his face in Lance’s neck and Lance rested his head on his shoulder.

“I’m here for you” Lance said firmly, “We’ve only known each other for about an hour or two, but I really really like you Keith.”

“Thanks Lance, I like you a lot too.”

And for once in his life, Keith felt ok.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so this is my first fanfic ever, I know it ended abruptly but i couldn't think of anything else to type, plus i wasn't even expecting it to go this far aha. Anyway hope you enjoyed :)


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